Criminals may be exploiting a February FBI announcement in which the agency said it would reach out to victims of crypto scams. Real agents won’t ask you for money, though.
If you’ve been a victim of fraud, be wary of emails or phone calls claiming to come from the FBI. They may be another scam.
The agency today warned that fraudsters are impersonating employees from the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) and «revictimizing» people who’ve already been defrauded. «Between December 2023 and February 2025, the FBI received more than 100 reports of IC3 impersonation scams», it says.
Fraudsters have long impersonated federal or government officials. But this recent campaign may have gained even more potency after the FBI said it had been reaching out to thousands of people who’ve fallen for cryptocurrency scams.
On Friday, the FBI noted that the “scammers claimed to have recovered the victim’s lost funds or offered to assist in recovering funds,” making the offer hard to resist.
